So I've got my heart set on a moog and I've done about as much research and youtube-trawling as I think I can bear.Basically I've decided the highest I'm willing to pay is for a used voyager RME, with a little phatty or a slim phatty + midi controller as the second option.What I'm wondering is in terms of leads and basses, how limited is the phatty architecture vs the voyager? (to my knowledge slim/little phatties are basically the same sonically). I'm not really concerned with how much better the voyager is for the cost, but primarily what I've heard is the phatties are limited in terms of modulation options and only having 2 oscillators and 1 filtered (as opposed to 3 and 2 respectively). If I don't want to do heavily modulated "out-there" kind of effect-sounds, will the phatty be enough? I'm willing to settle with the multi-function pots on the phatties over the knob per fucntion on the voyager, but I'll pay for the voyager if I feel its got what I need.

I think you'd do fine with a Phatty. Yes, it has one less oscillator, and filter, and more limited modulation patching, BUT, it is still a 100% real deal analog Moog synth, and the very last design by the late great Bob Moog himself. The Phatty can do some amazing bass and lead sounds, and though it has only 4 parameters to tweak at a time, the controls are well thought out and easy to understand.

From my brief experience with the voyager, and after looking the specs of the little phatty, I'd say that out of the box, the voyager will give you more out of the box. But; with a the cv expander and a couple of moogerfooger, the LP could Probably be a worthly opponent for the voyager RME. Interestingly enough, on the original Minimoog, if you wanted an LFO, you had to turn the 3rd OSC in to one, leaving you with(in essence) the same architecture of a slim phatty/little phatty(with the acception of the arp). Remember, this is just my humble opinion and the voyager is the only Moog I've had experience with. I have however done quite a lot of research, so as to provide an educated oppinion for you. So, there's my humble opinion.

-TheKeytarist

"A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one."— Benjamin Franklin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dxx_YbHyBigso is the little phatty he's using one of the tribute editions or whatever that have extended control voltage capabilities?how much does that add to it? I mean the way it looks like most moogerfoogers cost, I might as well just buy the voyager instead of the phatty + the difference in 'foogers, is that worth it?

So I mean modulation-wise it seems like I'm pretty much covered in the future if I get a phatty, as far as sound goes would you guys say the extra filter and oscillator on the voyager makes a big difference?

PreemptiveWhack wrote:So I mean modulation-wise it seems like I'm pretty much covered in the future if I get a phatty, as far as sound goes would you guys say the extra filter and oscillator on the voyager makes a big difference?

I don't have the Voyager but I have the LP and will say I don't really find myself thinking "oh man, if only I had one more osc and filter!" If you're interested in traditional MiniMoogy sounds, you might not need the Voyager's additional LFOs. Then again, I have other synths for multiple oscillators and wacky LFOing. And you are restricted a bit by the LP's keyboard size and the keys aren't that great either--at least not on my Tribute.

As for the MoogerFoogers, some of them cover the same territory as the Voyager, others don't. That FreqBox does give you an extra oscillator for hard syncing if you want to go that route.

PreemptiveWhack wrote:...would you guys say the extra filter and oscillator on the voyager makes a big difference?

I used to have a Voyager RME, and seriously exploited feedback with the second filter, due to how the left versus the right output had them separated. So if I remember correctly, the right output went to the mixer and the left output went back to the audio input. Changing the cutoff value of the feedback line with the spacing knob, combined with changing the pre-mix tone with something attached to the Mix Insert jack, made for some rather outlandish tones. Not overdriven like the Minimoog, but rather, the increased feedback changed the phase of harmonics(notch for some, boost for others) and squealed when the amplitude hit a certain threshold.

All the basses from 18 seconds on in this montage clip use this feedback approach:

That final one not only used an aural exciter in the Mix Insert path, but crossmod of the oscillators by Osc3, including modulating itself.

Another thing exclusive to the Voyager was combining the waveshape modulation with FM via Oscillator 3. Some fun to be had in performance with not quite triangular vibrato, for instance. It got to where I wished I had sprung for the keyboard version just for the touchpad, for controlling this technique.

Last edited by Solderman on Wed May 07, 2014 11:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.

"Lots of people are nostalgic for analogue. I suspect they're people who never had to work with it." - Brian Eno

TheKeytarist wrote:First or all, there is only so much you can learn from the Internet

The general idea when you are giving people advice on buying this or that, or influencing their decisions in the least, would be that you have first hand experience (and a reasonable amount of knowledge on the subject). If all you are doing is googling this or that, and applying your two cents to something you really have no or rather limited knowledge of, then it does a serious disservice to everyone involved.

I have witnessed several times where you gave highly inaccurate information, and despite people asking you to cease giving the bad information, you have continued.

I don't know if you're just trying to help, and while trying to help is a noble gesture, giving inaccurate information offers little in the way of help and could result in some unwitting person speeding to any given synth shoppe, spending their hard earned cash, and coming home to find out that you gave them rather inaccurate data.

An incident like that would make the whole community here look bad, which is why I have chosen to call you out on this.

I'm genuinely sorry for the rant, and to the OP for wasting their time reading this (and everyone else for that matter) but I felt compelled to reply.

Thanks. It's good to see that some people still confront the issues. I also believe that is goes with out saying that not every thing you read on the Internet is true(including fourms) and how seriously the information is taken, is ultimately up to the reader. As well as that, it is also the readers job to research what the replies said and make sure that the information is right. Being a reader isn't easy is it? At any rate I will try my best to do so in the future, and I am glad to have my mistakes and misinformation pointed out. Thanks.

"A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one."— Benjamin Franklin

Ok yeah everyone be nice, considering I think keytarist was actually right regarding the phatty having cv expandability options.

GuyaGuy wrote:I don't have the Voyager but I have the LP and will say I don't really find myself thinking "oh man, if only I had one more osc and filter!" If you're interested in traditional MiniMoogy sounds, you might not need the Voyager's additional LFOs. Then again, I have other synths for multiple oscillators and wacky LFOing. And you are restricted a bit by the LP's keyboard size and the keys aren't that great either--at least not on my Tribute.

As for the MoogerFoogers, some of them cover the same territory as the Voyager, others don't. That FreqBox does give you an extra oscillator for hard syncing if you want to go that route.

That's pretty much what I needed to know, It's not that I'm trying to emulate traditional MiniMoogosity, but the sounds I'm aiming for coincide pretty nicely. And also, I tried an LP at guitar center the other day and the keyboard was COMPLETELY shot, you couldn't play notes too rapidly or it wouldn't play about half of them, is this a common complaint? If so that would be a pretty good argument for the SP

Solderman wrote:I used to have a Voyager RME, and seriously exploited feedback with the second filter, due to how the left versus the right output had them separated. So if I remember correctly, the right output went to the mixer and the left output went back to the audio input. Changing the cutoff value of the feedback line with the spacing knob, combined with changing the pre-mix tone with something attached to the Mix Insert jack, made for some rather outlandish tones. Not overdriven like the Minimoog, but rather, the increased feedback changed the phase of harmonics(notch for some, boost for others) and squealed when the amplitude hit a certain threshold.

All the basses from 18 seconds on in this montage clip use this feedback approach:

That final one not only used an aural exciter in the Mix Insert path, but crossmod of the oscillators by Osc3, including modulating itself.

Another thing exclusive to the Voyager was combining the waveshape modulation with FM via Oscillator 3. Some fun to be had in performance with not quite triangular vibrato, for instance. It got to where I wished I had sprung for the keyboard version just for the touchpad, for controlling this technique.

Yeah I really like those basses, is that pretty untouchable by the LP? I mean I know it doesn't have the same feedbacky thing per se but it sounded like especially that first bass at 18 seconds wouldn't be too hard to come close to on the phatty

Use the 2 pole filter on the SP and you should be able to at least approximate those first two sounds. I can't remember if I used feedback for them, but I may have had something in the Mix Insert path. The last three, probably not, on a SP. FWIW, I've not heard about common problems with the keyboards on Moog Music synths.

"Lots of people are nostalgic for analogue. I suspect they're people who never had to work with it." - Brian Eno